Recipe calls for one yeast type but you have another? Convert between active dry, instant, fresh yeast, and sourdough starter with accurate ratios.
Converting from
Most common yeast, requires proofing in warm water before use.
Converting to
Finer granules, can be mixed directly into flour. Faster rising.
| Active Dry | = | Instant | = | Fresh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tsp | = | ¾ tsp | = | ½ oz (14g) |
| 1 packet (2¼ tsp) | = | 1¾ tsp | = | ⅔ oz (18g) |
| 1 tbsp | = | 2¼ tsp | = | 1 oz (28g) |
Most common yeast, requires proofing in warm water before use.
Storage: Room temperature unopened, refrigerate after opening. Lasts 4-6 months.
Activation: Proof in 105-110°F (40-43°C) water with a pinch of sugar for 5-10 min.
Finer granules, can be mixed directly into flour. Faster rising.
Storage: Room temperature unopened, refrigerate after opening. Lasts 4-6 months.
Activation: No proofing needed. Mix directly with dry ingredients.
Moist, perishable blocks. Preferred by professional bakers for flavor.
Storage: Refrigerate, use within 2 weeks. Can be frozen for 3 months.
Activation: Crumble into warm liquid (95°F/35°C) before adding to dough.
Wild yeast culture. Adds flavor and longer fermentation time.
Storage: Room temperature if fed daily, refrigerate if fed weekly.
Activation: Feed 4-12 hours before use until doubled and bubbly.
Active dry yeast needs proofing in warm water before use. Instant yeast has smaller granules and can be mixed directly with flour. Instant rises faster but both produce similar results.
Fresh yeast (also called cake yeast) is perishable but offers slightly better flavor and faster activation. Many professional bakers prefer it for artisan breads.
Fresh yeast, active dry yeast and instant yeast are the same organism packaged at three different moisture levels, so the conversion is a matter of weight rather than of strength. King Arthur Baking’s professional reference publishes the two multipliers that cover most substitutions, both written from fresh yeast as the starting point because that is where the water is.
| Converting | Multiply the fresh weight by | Handling note |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh yeast to active dry yeast | 0.4 | Active dry must be hydrated in warm water before it goes into the dough. |
| Fresh yeast to instant yeast | 0.33 | Instant can be added straight to the flour; make up the weight difference with extra water so the dough yield stays the same. |
Going the other way means dividing by the same multiplier, which is how a recipe written around a packet of dry yeast gets translated to the block of fresh yeast at the back of the shop. The two multipliers also imply a cross-rate between the dry yeasts: instant yeast is about 0.825 times the weight of active dry (0.33 divided by 0.4), so active dry is about 1.21 times instant. Keep that in mind as an estimate rather than a rule — the published guidance is to use the manufacturer’s own ratio when it is printed on the package.
| The recipe calls for | Fresh | Active dry | Instant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh yeast, 30 g | 30 g | 12 g | 10 g |
| Fresh yeast, 10 g | 10 g | 4 g | 3.3 g |
| One packet active dry, 7 g (1/4 oz) | about 17.5 g | 7 g | about 5.8 g |
| One packet instant, 7 g | about 21 g | about 8.5 g | 7 g |
Changing the yeast form does not change how fast the dough rises. Dough temperature, the amount of sugar and salt in the formula, and the temperature of the room do that, which is why the same recipe can double in ninety minutes in summer and in four hours in a cold kitchen. Judge the rise by the dough rather than the clock: the bread proofing guide covers the visual cues and the time-and-temperature reference table, the sourdough calculator covers the wild-yeast case, and the flour substitution tool covers the other half of a formula swap when the flour changes at the same time. If you are scaling the whole recipe rather than one ingredient, run it through the recipe scaler afterwards.
Sources: King Arthur Baking, professional reference: “Yeast”; Colorado State University Extension, “Ingredient Substitutions”; New Mexico State University Extension, “In a Pinch: Ingredient Substitution”.